Complicated

Chapter Twelve: Green Piece

If I fall along the way
Pick me up and dust me off
And if I get too tired to make it
Be my breath so I can walk

Matchbox 20 - Bent

The roads were clear, much to Grace's delight. The snow had thawed last week leaving the concrete clean and slush free. The sun was bright and warming the earth as she adjusted her NYPD baseball cap so the visor kept it out of her eyes. It was perfect conditions to play street hockey.

The winter chill was still hanging in the air but Grace didn't care. She was wearing a black long sleeved shirt underneath her worn, powder blue Wonderwoman t-shirt, over dark jeans and well used roller blades. Black elbow and a knee pads protected her joints, as one of the other players attempted to smash into her, forcing her to twist out of his way in the final second. He missed by a hair's breath, sailing past her and slammed into the car parked up on the curb. In her hands she clasped the wooden hockey stick even tighter as she ducked under another player's arm and weaved past another, her eyes intent on the goal.

The Goalie's azure eyes fixed on her as she accelerated faster, drawing her arm back for the shot at the open left hand corner. She pelted the orange plastic ball at full force, watching it sail through the air. The Goalie's hand shot out snatching the ball from it's trajectory with his glove before holding it up in triumph as he stripped off his hockey mask.

"Yea, What up!" Adam yelled out loud waving the ball for Grace to see."You liked that didn't ya Grace? Thought you were gonna score but your not."

Grace flipped him her middle finger, before removing her NYPD cap and wiping the sweat off her forehead with her sleeve. Layered up in these clothes and being this active was the kind of tiresome activity she needed before going home to bed to sleep off the next twelve hours.

A car horn blared, Adam shouted the warning, picking up the net as their group divided themselves so that the car could drive through their patch of road. Grace skated after Adam as he set the net down and waited patiently for the game to continue.

"Thanks for inviting me today." Grace uttered, snatching up her water bottle and chugging from it as they watched the Black Sedan drive past.

"No problem, I forgot how competitive you are. The way you took out Kenny back there was ruthless." Adam recounted as the two of them progressed into the middle of the road again, carrying the goal between them.

"Kenny thinks girls can't play hockey." Grace complained clutching the orange ball tightly in the same hand as her hockey stick. "He got a taste of his own medicine when he tried smashing me before."

The ball slipped from her glove as she set down the goal post, she cursed trying to juggle her stick and her water bottle at the same time.

"Can you get that?" Adam called out to a young dark haired girl crossing the street as the ball rolled past her.

The girl ignored him and continued jogging towards the house on the opposite side of the road, passing a parked white van. Grace rolled her eyes at the self absorption of teenagers as Adam tossed his hockey mask to her took off after the ball. He crouched down, peering underneath the car it had rolled under before sliding his hockey stick in after it and hooking the ball with the curved end. He rose to his feet, orange ball clasped in his hand and held it up for the rest of the players to see.

"I got it..."

The explosion seemed to come out of nowhere. Grace felt the rush of heat hit her before she hurtled several feet through through the air. A bellowing roar erupting in her ears as she jolted back onto the ground hard. Her hand slapped out automatically just like her judo training taught before her neck and head had a chance to connect with the concrete. Her ears were ringing like crazy, the sound was piercing through to her brain as she lay flat on her back staring into a complete blank canvass of blue above her.